@eaglejarl, Thanks for being willing to engage with me, regarding this matter.
It's not lost on me that writing is a very emotionally intimate thing, and that sharing your art with others is to be vulnerable (and Marked for Death is, indeed, art).
Now, on to the matter of Hazou-pilot's characterization in 604
I think this is a harsh reading. Here's a rephrasing of the chapter:
I disagree that this is a harsh read of the chapter, but I am willing to discuss it.
Y: Also, you are a big pussy! And I'm going to start convincing the rest of our family to be psychotic murder cultists too! And the psychotic murder cultist is going to kill you if you don't start murdering enough people every day, but he didn't say how many was enough, so feel free to stress about that.
It's worth noting that, prior to this segment, Yuno spent a paragraph talking about how Jashinism is far clearer/simpler than either the Will of Fire, or Isan's religion is, and how Hidan had spent the conversation being "understanding."
So the context of this statement is that Yuno, was socially vulnerable (no one around because she, a jonin, didn't hear the Evacuation Alarm while training... which is a separate issue)
and emotionally vulnerable (all the neglect she suffered in Isan that she was actively working through, plus the added loneliness from being the only Isanese ninja in Leaf --stranger in a strange land effect --and then the added grief from losing Akane).
And further,
she doesn't call Hazou a pussy. She's echoing Hidan's words (after all, I don't think
Yuno's ever used that sort of language. I'm not sure it'd be proper in Isan, and the words sound far too unusual, coming out of her mouth. It
does, however, sound far more normal coming from
Hidan's mouth) and framing it as an exchange wherein they both teach each other, with the intent of growing to serve Jashin better.
Sure, the words might be insulting, but it's not
Yuno's insult. It's
Hidan's insult that is echoed from Yuno's lips. An insult that Hidan manipulated her into believing. Even as she echoes this statement, she's crying aloud that she's a victim of brainwashing/radicalization, even if she, herself, isn't able to see it yet.
I feel that Hazou, who is deeply familiar with Mari the Heartbreaker, and Ami the Ami, should be able to recognize this.
H (thinking): Argh. I'm already wrung out from dealing with psychotic murder guy all day and I thought I was going to be able to relax, here in my home which is supposed to be a safe place, with my family who are supposed to be good people.
I understand what a feeling of shock that this must have been, especially when Hazou thought that he was finished with Hidan Complications for the day.
But Hazou's been the victim of S-ranker Cruelty before and not snapped at anyone in the aftermath. Several times over, even. When Zabuza flattened Hazou during the Chuunin Exams, his first words upon waking up were to reassure Kei and Noburi that he didn't
actually believe the words he used to provoke Zabuza.
Narratively, he's an unending font of patience with his family members. Kei flees to the Seventh Path for a week? All he feels is concern. Mari falls apart at a critical time? Worry and fear, no resentment. Shard wonders aloud if Hazou's love for them is real? Apologetic patience. Kei refuses to maintain the Pangolin Trade Deal? Hazou takes the blame on himself so that Kei can remain the Pangolin Summoner.
And there are far
more examples of Hazou being the Goketsu Family Therapist... Hazou, himself, thought that if Mari had allowed herself to be vulnerable with Kei the way that she had been vulnerable with Hazou, then maybe her huge fight with Kei would've been avoided.
This day sucked, sure, but if Hazou can maintain his cool during the Orochimaru Fiasco, with Severes, then I feel that Hazou should be able to do so now, as well. If Hazou can suffer through the Gamble of Bakuchioka, and be fine in the immediate aftermath, then I think he should be able to keep it together now...
Especially when his beloved sister-in-law is signaling "victim of social brainwashing" with every word that she parrots from Hidan.
Hazou has a long and storied history of being patient despite these sorts of things. Or, arguably, Hazou is determined to keep his cool and be nice because these sorts of things happen to him, and he knows how much is sucks to be snapped/yelled at by people whom you care about. Given what we've seen, I feel like, for better or worse, Hazou doesn't really
have any boundaries about this sort of thing. He just allows it.
I don't feel as though this point should have as much of an influence on his behavior as you seem to imply. That this point does have that much influence feels... inconsistent. It makes me feel confused about why
now, and not any of the previous times.
It also makes me feel a little... frustrated, is perhaps the right word. I've previously expressed discontent with the Hazou-pilot's habit of not sticking up for himself, and have been told that this is simply his characterization, and that the action plans would need to change if we wanted to see a change in Hazou-pilot's characterization.
But then, that same characterization that has Hazou-pilot not sticking up for himself, the same characterization that means Hazou is eternally patient...
doesn't lend itself to speaking calmly to Yuno in a moment of stress? That characterization doesn't stop Hazou from treating Yuno so poorly that she seeks the comfort of isolation? It makes me feel as though the "silver lining" to Hazou-pilot's characterization is gone, or at least unreliable.
[Hazō's stress-inducing sister x2, plus the relationship-is-fraught Shikamaru appear]
(read: joking) Hey, Snowflake isn't stress-inducing! At most, that should be "Hazou's stress-inducing sister, the relationship-is-fraught Shikamaru, and Snowflake appear"
But in all seriousness... it feels a little hard to take this point with the weight that it's intended to have.
Intellectually, I can understand the reasoning of "I'm trying to convince Shika et. al. that I'm not a Jashinist, and here's Yuno proclaiming the exact opposite. I can hear them walking up the gravel road. This is stressful, I'm on a time crunch, and I need to find a way to put a patch on this until the meeting is over."
But
practically speaking... the meeting was offscreened and summarized.
I understand that this was to conserve QM Spoons. I feel supportive of the general narrative device, since it allows plot beats to still occur, for Hazou to gain information he needs through those meetings, and it minimizes the drain on QM spoons. I understand and approve of this.
But still, I struggle to assign this meeting (the meeting that Hazou-pilot was stressed about) the narrative weight that this point seems to want to give it. It happened offscreen, and the tone of that particular update feels scathing/flippant of its very contents on a meta-level.
Again, I can understand the reasoning provided, but given how the meeting was presented to the playerbase, textually, I feel skeptical that it should be assigned much narrative weight.
H: Yuno, I am putting this on pause. I am not ordering you to give up your new faith, I am not insulting you or calling you crazy or stupid or evil, but I am giving you a direct order to not make this situation any worse until I can continue trying to talk you into not being a psychotic murder cultist of the evil murder god whose priest killed a lot of people we care about.
If this had been the phrasing that Hazou-pilot had used (or at least carried the same mindful intent), then I wouldn't be concerned about his behavior. But Hazou didn't say this, or carry that same energy. Hazou hissed that he'll "deal with [her] later."
And Yuno, who has received harsh neglect from the Kannagi Clan (and, really, all of Isan), reacts much in the same way I expect she did while in Isan: closing off her expression, and doing as her Clan Head orders.
She leaves Hazou, seeking isolation within her room, which has horrible character implications (in Isan, all Yuno wanted was connection, but was forced into isolation. Yuno finds connection within the Goketsu and within Leaf, but after what Hazou just hissed at her, she seeks isolation out as a comfort).
I feel that Hazou-pilot
knows better, and that he should have been able to
do better.
He knows Yuno's treatment in Isan. He knows how much Yuno values her friendships within the Goketsu, and how much Yuno values his friendship. Hazou cleared his schedule at a time when he probably shouldn't have, just to explain to Yuno why he wanted to be her friend. In the action plan for chapter 607, Hazou further goes on to exhibit insight into Yuno's character.
Given that Hazou understands Yuno (doesn't
excuse Yuno's behavior, but
understands it), given that Yuno is "in" in the same way that Haru is (Mari herself has said that once Hazou decided Haru was "in," then he was "in," no matter what), and given all of Hazou's previous feats of patient, emotional endurance for other characters while under similar circumstances such as this one, I feel like Hazou-pilot should have been able to handle this conversation in a more mindful manner, and am concerned that he didn't.
